As I was driving back from Lindesberg today, a memory of when I was in Africa many years ago came into my mind. At that time there was a Civil War in Rhodesia, and after independence Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. I wanted to see Rhodesia, because it is a beautiful country and I had friends there. In those days, civilians travelled in protected convoys from one town to another.

One morning, whilst there, I woke up and had a very strange and uncomfortable feeling. It would not go away! I was in the Eastern Highlands which borders onto Mozambique. At six o’clock in the morning I went to the meeting place to catch the convoy. On that day I was planning to go to Victoria Falls. I managed to get a lift to a town where I would connect with another convoy, but I missed it. So I decided to hitchhike, my time was limited. Without knowing why I decided to wrap the camera that was hanging around my neck with a towel and put it in my backpack.

During those times you never knew who could be a terrorist; they would just come out of nowhere and always when you least expected them. I got a lift, and at about 2.30 pm I stopped in a little town for something to eat. In those days one was advised never to travel after three o’clock in the afternoon, but of course I continued. On my way out of that town I came to a sign that pointed in the directions of both Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. It was past three o’clock, and the voice inside my head said: “Do not take the road to Bulawayo.”

I still had this feeling of apprehension. A car stopped and there were four military guys offering me a lift. They were going in the direction of Bulawayo. I ignored the feeling and the voice inside my head. It was obvious that they had been drinking some alcohol and after a while they asked me if I could drive. I was the only one sober. They told me that we were going through an area where there was a lot of terrorist activity, so they asked me to drive as fast as possible.

Suddenly, I had a puncture on the front tire, it exploded. The car tried to drive into a rock face by the side of the road. Instantaneously I knew that I had to turn the wheel, otherwise none of us would have lived. The wheels spun quickly, consequently the car lost control and ended up on its roof sliding along the road for quite a few meters until it came to a halt. It was then that I found that my head was trapped between the steering wheel and the dashboard. Had the camera still been around my neck I would have been strangled, in all probability. As we were being thrown around the car an amazing thing happened: This light came towards me and surrounded me. I knew death could be near, but suddenly my fear just disappeared. In that moment I fully accepted the fact that I could pass, without fear. That feeling was amazing!

Everybody was more or less in one piece still, apart from me. I got out of the car, unbelievably I still had my sunglasses on. Since I could not see through them I took them off to clean them, only to discover that they were pitted, the lenses were damaged. Those sunglasses saved my sight!

There I was, in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly a farmer came in his Land Rover. He took me to an African bush clinic. There my wounds were attended to. It was very dangerous for me to stay there that night, so I was taken to the police station, a military post in those days, where they gave me a bed for the night.

To this day I do not know what happened to the other passengers that were in the car with me. They must have eventually got a lift.

After leaving the police station I made my way to Salisbury, now known as Harare, where I booked in to a hotel for the night. When I woke up the next day, I heard the voice again inside my head: “Do not take breakfast inside the hotel, go to one of the cafés and have breakfast there.” This time I listened to the advice, and as I was eating breakfast at a café I met a friend. I told her the story of what had happened and subsequently was invited to stay and recuperate on her father’s tobacco farm.

I did not follow the guidance this voice gave me at first, but in the end I listened and everything turned out ok. I now understood why I had wrapped the camera in a towel and why I should have not taken the road to Bulawayo.

I was on sick leave for four months due to a damaged shoulder and elbow from my previous employment at a sandwich factory. I had worked there for over ten years, and the monotony became too much for my body. Whilst at the health care centre I ran into a classmate from highschool (we had gone a culinary education together). We had a chat and went our separate ways.

Two weeks later the telephone rang. It was Maria, Fanthyttan’s house manager, the same girl that I had run into at the health care centre. She asked me if I was interested in working there and wanted to come by for an interview with Terry, Terry Evans.

Help, I thought, what could I possibly bring to the table there?

I had just completed a weekend course for my diploma as a dog trainer and started my first semester to become a consultant for dogs with different issues. I had wanted to work with animals. Ever since I was a child I have been able to see, hear and read behaviours and have tried to understand what animals are communicating. Now I know that what I was picking up from them was not my imagination, I was actually receiving a lot of information.

The interview at Fanthyttan did not go how I thought it would. The atmosphere, tranquility and friendly staff…this is where I wanted to work! I did not know what would happen development-wise, but those questions were answered as time went by.

I became very curious about Ingela’s meditation groups after working in the kitchen for a couple of years, attended a few meetings and the strangest things started happening. Every time we meditated animals would appear, animals that were not with us any longer. I did not quite understand, why just animals? I wanted to receive messages from spirit, just like everyone else. In the end I got it: Animals were my calling.

One day, Ingela came up to me and said: ”Please, Ann-Sofie, could you speak to my cat?” She handed over a picture of Daisy. I went home, sat down, relaxed and gave it a shot. If someone had told me before that communicating with the photograph of an animal was possible I would have been very hesitant. Anyhow, I sat there and wrote, wrote down what Daisy was showing me and conveying with her feelings. When I took a look at the paper there were multiple pages. What? Had I written all this? How did that happen? Could that be true?

I felt very insecure the following day, went to work and did not really want to show or tell anyone about the information that I had received. However, I showed Ingela and her look and tears said it all – they were Daisy’s words <3

When I think back on the interview with Terry, which today is four years ago, he actually mentioned all this to me, but at the time I could not see or take it in. Even today I can pause and wonder how this is possible, how can you speak to someone who is not there? Or how can you communicate with someone who does not even speak the same language? It works, it really works! Whenever I hear horses neighing in the stable I am no longer afraid, even though I know that my horses are out in the pasture. It is the same thing when there are four dogs on a walk with me, but I only have three of my own or when a cat or dog sometimes brushes against my leg. I now realise that spirit animals come and join us.

Being the leader of a company is certainly not an easy job! You cannot be everything to everyone at all times. I have been a leader for most of my working life. One thing that I had to learn is that before I can show respect to my staff, I have to have respect for myself and listen to my own truth based on my experience. Yes, there are certain times when the truth I have as a company leader is not the same truth as my staffs’. However, I have also learned that if there is a problem within a company and you do not deal with it, it festers and attracts more negative energy which will then affect the whole company. That is why it is very important to confront issues when they come up. I can admit that I make my mistakes and I have my good and bad days…I have to take responsibility for that. However, I try to approach each new day with an open mind.

At times, my staff can say to me: “When you are straight and clear with us, we know where we have you and what you think of us, and that makes us feel secure.” When I interview someone for a job, I try to get a sense of what their natural intelligence is, and what kind of resource you can create from that intelligence. Many of my personnel have not been qualified for the job I have given them, but they have proved that they have the natural ability to do it. There are those who have had the right education and have been very good at the job, as well. Also, there are some employees who have done a very good job here, and after some time they have left in order to take another step in their development.

I try to find people who can grow and develop with the company just like the company is doing. I would also like them to have skills and abilities that I can learn from. As a company leader you cannot be an expert on everything, it is important to employ people who can do what you cannot do yourself. One thing that I do check with people is their motivation. Do they want the job because of the work I do as a medium, are they applying because their purpose is money, or are they genuinely interested in doing the job? I have realised that people who only are interested in money within their employment are not very happy. A job must be fulfilling for the person working there!

Intrigue, in any form, is something that I do not like, and it is something that I will confront very quickly when I detect it. I have not always made the right decisions when I have employed someone, but I make the effort. We have had people here who thought they were superior, they have attempted to intrigue, but when you have a superiority complex nothing will ever work out for you.

What I have been writing about so far is my way of running my company and respecting my personnel by being straight and honest with them. Something that really fascinates me is when people in my team discover something they are capable of doing, without having known that they could do it. It is like a seed that grows and eventually can blossom, their natural intelligence. If I think of my company as a garden, team work is what makes a garden grow. I have not developed Gamla Byskolan on my own, it is built by contribution from many people and has evolved through team effort. When you give a person the freedom and room to develop their own resource it will give them the freedom to be who they really are.

A few years ago I found myself stuck on my little treadmill of life without seeing the slightest possibility of change. There was so much that I wanted to do; in my mind there were already so many obstacles concerning finances, the family, work etc. I could not see a way forward.

I received a tip on a house for rent in the countryside, an opening had presented itself for me! The house was about 200 km from where I lived in the city. After seeing it for the first time I instantly fell in love. This is where I want to live! It would take me 1 ½ years to secure a job, it was not as easy as I thought it would be. During that period of time I drove to the house every weekend and really enjoyed the nature and solitude there. The day that I permanently moved in was a very happy day: I had five cats and a bunch of chickens that I had bought from an egg factory. I wanted them to retire at my place and enjoy their time after living a productive life indoors.

I have always loved animals and dreamt of being able to work with them but had not come any further than taking a course in animal communication in the middle of the ’90s. I was unable to continue on this path for different reasons, but I never gave up hope.

A few years after moving I picked up where I had left off by attending a course with Terry Evans at Gamla Byskolan in Fanthyttan. I thought it could be a good start. Terry was an excellent course leader who pushed buttons, but at the same he was there as a safety net when things felt a bit shaky. I had the chance to brush up on my English which went quite well, so Terry asked me if I would consider trying out as his interpreter, when necessary. I tried to interpret at a ”spontankväll” and have probably never dripped with sweat as much over my whole body at the same time. The audience was kind and patient and it went ok, but I just felt that it was not my thing.

Terry and I felt something between the two of us, but we could not explain it. We did not know one another, so we decided to go on a date which we are still on 2 ½ years later.

For some time now, and together with a fantastic team, I have been working for Creative Experiences at Gamla Byskolan as an administrator. We can really have fun from time to time but also stay completely focused during course periods and other events. We all know what our responsibilities are and support each other in our work. Terry is a good leader who gives us both freedom and boundaries to be able to develop our own potential.

I just completed a basic course in animal communication, and this time around I want to go all the way. It will take me a couple of years to reach my goal, but I think the journey itself will be very interesting. Had someone told me where I would be today, while being stuck on my little treadmill of life, I would have had difficulties believing it.

I have watched a little bit of “Hollywood medium” Tyler Henry. He says that when he is working with spirit contacts he uses his five senses. That statement made me connect with myself and the way in which I work.

When I work with spirit my five senses are used in order for them to make contact, but I never know how they are going to communicate with me. If a person wanted to show themselves as they were in life I see them. Sometimes clearly, sometimes not so clearly. I can see them in a picture within my mind or standing in front of me. That is called projected clairvoyance. At times, the problem can be that they do not show themselves at the age that they passed, they will show themselves at an age where the recipient will most likely remember them. For example: When my maternal grandmother takes contact with me, I will see her as I remembered her as a child and that would remind me of happy times with her.

Moving on to clairaudience, which means to hear. When a spirit is talking to me, I often hear the voice within myself, within my own mind. There have been times when I have heard the voice externally and it has taken on a physical form. An interesting thing for me is that each voice has its own unique tone that reflects the feelings that the person is trying to convey. It can be love, sorrow, happiness…a hundred different feelings. So with the words come the feelings, clairsentience. That helps me communicate what the spirit contact actually is trying to say.

When a spirit communicates to me how they felt, physically or psychologically, I can feel their pain either within my body or mind. I have learnt to give feelings a hundred words so it is not just a general description. As I connect with spirit they can sometimes give me the feeling of tasting something, at times being their favorite food. I can also get the feeling of smell – different animals or the spirit contact’s favorite perfume, tobacco if they were a smoker. Sometimes, when they are telling me how they passed, I can smell fire or smoke.

When I open up to spirit and they connect with me their energy and my energy become one single unit. We can see and feel colors that spirit show us, sometimes their favourite colour. How many of you, as you decide what you will be wearing for the day, feel that a specific colour is wrong that day?

While connecting with spirit I am in a neutral state, I just receive their information with an open mind, the mind of a child. I recognize what they are sending, because the information they send, in whatever category, connects with my own five senses. I then have to put words to them and communicate to the recipient of the message.

Spirit live in a higher dimension, but they still use their senses. In some way, I feel that our senses are universal. That is also how telepathy works for me: mind to mind, the same five senses, just on a lower frequency. Telepathy does not have any spirit contact, though.

I want to thank that medium, he helped me open another door. I understand and agree with him.